Monday, December 10, 2007

As I’ve written about a number of times in both of my books – I’m a university dropout. I consider myself a life long learner and yet at age 28, despite attending uni on and off since I was 17 I’m still yet to get that all important piece of paper.

As an entrepreneur, I don’t desperately need a degree to enhance my career prospects, however I find it strangely fascinating that a small but persistent part of me still wants a degree. I don’t know whether it’s to fulfil some distant childhood ambition or if I just want to wear the long black gown and fancy hat!

When I look through the list of my business role models however, I’m comforted to see so many who are also in the dropout category: Bill Gates and Paul Allen (Microsoft co-founders), Ray Kroc (The man who took McDonalds to the world), Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Richard Branson, Larry Eillison (Oracle founder), Michael Dell, David Geffen (Dreamworks co-founder), Ted Turner (media giant), Blake Ross (Firefox co-creator) and Sean Parker (Napster co-founder). Not a lot of women on that list – but for the time being I’m happy to have my name in the same category – so long as I stick to my goal of being a life long learner.

Steve Jobs (Apple & Pixar co-founder) is a name glaringly missing from the above list. Having just finished reading iCon – a book all about Steve, I found his dropout story one of the most fascinating I’ve read. He dropped out after his first semester, managed to get a refund on the fees his parents had paid and still somehow managed to keep living on campus – only now he was attending the classes he was actually interested in (and not paying!). To learn more, check out the following: